The Oligarchy
by PrestigiousP
Summary: I could tell you all the good guys win in the end, that karma is real and the universe has a funny way of repaying its debts, but I would be lying. Instead, I will represent the events of my life that led up to this point as cleanly and clearly as I remember them. My story is the simple recollection of how I tried, and quite possibly failed, to give Kalos back to its people.
1. prologue: don't go gentle

**prologue: don't go gentle**

* * *

Looking back on that night, I imagine Route 5 was silent. Obviously not literally silent, I mean the guy was shot nineteen times after all. But unnaturally silent. I imagine the native pokémon didn't make a sound for him. I imagine nature itself stopped completely. As if it were expressing its shame for its government, I imagine the wind stopped in its tracks, the rivers stilled with apprehension, the trees firmly solid. I imagine when the swarm of government officials all raised their guns at the same time and began to fire, and he chucked that forsaken poké ball with all his might into my life, nature lamented him with silence.

I know better now. I've learned first-hand since then the world doesn't stop for tragedy, only people do. In actuality, when those bullets penetrated that man and he hit the ground, the wind continued to blow, the trees continued to dance, the river continued to ripple, and the pokémon continued to live in blissful ignorance of the wrong done in their home.

My late mother was an avid poet, well, before the government began to regulate poetry and all artistic media for "harmful propaganda." A framed illegal copy of "Do not go gentle into that good night" still hangs in the living room of my house. She got it before Kalos went to shit. It was her favorite. As a kid I always just thought it was about a dude begging his dad not to die, but my mother always said she thought it was about not giving up without a fight, even if the cause seems futile. Often I think about that poem and its message and what might've happened if my mother had considered it in her final days. She and my father might still be alive.

My mother's interpretation of that poem still sticks with me today. In the beginning, I was only concerned about staying alive, but along the way I realized that too many people died for their gentility, for nothing. Because they didn't fight they were now six feet under. At some point, that didn't sit well with me. Along the way I realized that being bitter about the way my life turned out wasn't helping anyone. Along the way I resolved that I would make a difference or die trying.

My mother always said there are two sides to every story, and I could present mine to you with some nobility. I could tell you all the good guys win in the end, that karma is real and the universe has a funny way of repaying its debts, but I would be lying, and I've been exposed to too much revisionist history in my lifetime for me to be okay with that. Instead, I will represent the events of my life that led up to this point as cleanly and clearly as I remember them. My story isn't noble or glamorous, and I'm no heroine. I'm oppressed, and my story is the simple recollection of how I tried, and quite possibly failed, to give Kalos back to its people.


	2. chapter one: struck by lightning

**chapter one: struck by lightning**

* * *

I remember learning something in science class as a little kid, something that stuck with me. One in twelve-thousand people are struck directly by lightning in their lifetime. I thought about it a lot that night. One minute you're living your life, rolling up your car windows, getting the mail, waving goodbye to a loved one.

_Crack!_

A split-second later you're on the ground. Three-hundred-million volts of electricity just surged through your body. Are you okay? Can you speak? Do you even remember who you are? I imagined getting struck by lightning was a life-changing event. Of course it is potentially life-ending, but what about the times in which survival follows? Is it for the better? How does one cope?

I entertained these thoughts in the back of my mind on the night I was struck by lightning. I sat on the edge of the Camphrier flax fields along Versant Road close to the eastern town arch, staring absentmindedly into the full moon. I rested my chin on my knees, arms wrapped around my legs as that one gentle beam of light illuminated the expansive darkness, shamelessly exposing the night and its vices.

I could say I went there to be dramatic, to brood and contemplate and feel bad for myself, but to avoid negative connotations, and because I know my feelings are entirely justified, I won't describe it that way. I went there and sat in the glaring moonlight – as I often did – plainly and simply to be alone. Because the trees look like shadows, and I like watching the breeze make them dance. Because the wind-wrought smell of the flax comforts me. Because in living under an oppressive government, alone time is valuable.

I learned later the moment I snapped out of my trance was the moment that fateful barrage of bullets sent that man to the ground. Less than a second is all it takes to be struck by lightning. In less than a second, a man died by gunfire. In less than a second, my entire serenity was broken and disregarded because I felt threatened by the systematic _crack_ of a death sentence occurring not a mile from where I sat.

In less than a second, I was up and running.

When you're scared and alone among a throng of trees at an undisclosed time of night, everything is particularly blurry. Suddenly, the gracefully-moving treeline isn't charming anymore. Instead it's a painful reminder of how lost and panicked and alone you are when there's a crazed gunman – or as I learned later, gunmen – on the loose.

With each snap of a twig under my foot, I felt my desperation climb to greater heights. The air around me suddenly became an all-too-precious resource that I felt I could never get enough of. The blurry images I passed seemed as if they were now spinning and blending together. Fear became a driving reason I was losing control.

In a split second, I was on the ground. I tripped. I don't remember over what because the next thing I saw zapped my mind of everything I ever knew. Was I okay? Could I talk? What was my name? Couldn't remember. Quite possibly the last Ampharos in existence was currently staring at me from behind a red plastic barrier.

Firstly, I need to mention that I never knew pre-regime schooling offered equal balance to those deemed "core" subjects until after I became one of Kalos' most-wanted that night. I never payed much attention in school because I did not like neither science nor history and those were the two most important subjects as deemed by the oligarchy when I was a kid. But I do remember having a specific interest in mega evolution when we learned about it in both those classes. I had every cataloged Kalosian mega pokémon memorized. Secretly, I imagined owning one.

I never expressed much interest in becoming a trainer, mostly because I knew it was dangerous, but something about having that one special pokémon and that one special stone tantalized me. I always knew it was nothing but a perverse fantasy, but until the oligarchy could learn to read my mind, it was a perverse fantasy that I indulged often.

In actuality, we were fed facts about pokémon and their mega evolutions in school in hopes that it would deter us from their majesty at a young age. They drilled it into our heads that these pokémon were unstoppable forces, very dangerous and violent. This knowledge was essential. It is the duty of a Kalosian citizen to report any pokémon with the potential for mega evolution so it can be captured or euthanized. Similarly, it is the duty of a Kalosian citizen to report any person or persons unlawfully owning or harboring a pokémon with the potential for mega evolution.

As I grew older, my childhood fantasy faded, not because of the ever-prescient threat of the government or because I was afraid of these pokémon. But when I grew up I realized how selfish my fantasy was. Mega evolution was a big deal, and it cost a lot of pokémon and people their lives. It felt wrong for me to want one just as an accessory, just for me to say "hey, I'm Moira and this is my super-special-totally-unique-one-of-a-kind-mega pokémon."

Also, it would be kind of hard for me to accessorize it anyway if the minute I pulled it out to show someone, they immediately responded by shooting me nineteen times.

That, however, wasn't the moral dilemma I faced when I saw Ampharos' poké ball lying on the ground. In fact, I didn't give the results of my education – or anything else for that matter – a second thought. What I did think about was the fact that there was a poké ball lying in front of me with a pokémon inside that had potential to mega evolve, and it was therefore my civic and moral duty to report it. I may have been a little naive at this point in time, but I knew what would happen to Ampharos if I turned it in.

I slowly pushed myself off the ground with my hands as Ampharos steadily held my gaze from its plastic prison. We both sat there in cold silence just staring at each other, waiting for what I was about to do, the decision I was going to make.

The thing that still makes me sick to this day is that I contemplated reporting it. I was going to turn around and walk back to Camphrier and tell the local stasis officer where and how exactly I stumbled upon this very feral and aggressive man-eating monster.

But then I remembered no one knew I was out there, and no one would know if I just got up and walked away. Hell, I could even convince myself I never saw it if I tried hard enough. Somebody one day would stumble upon it, and like a curse it would suddenly be their burden instead of mine.

I was originally content with this plan, but the moonlight that provided me comfort not ten minutes earlier betrayed me that night. As I pushed myself up off the cold ground and began to walk away, I faintly saw that glimmer of hope in Ampharos' eyes disappear, the glimmer of hope that resulted from the possibility I would consider picking it up and taking it with me, and it broke my heart.

So I stopped in mid-stride. Closing my eyes, I turned back around and picked up the cool red-and-white plastic capsule, shoving it deep into the pocket of my hoodie, and in that moment, I sealed my fate. Because even just picking up its poké ball is a capital crime in post-regime Kalos.

In that moment, my life changed forever.


	3. chapter two: water of the womb

**chapter two: water of the womb**

* * *

My mother, in all her subtle rebelliousness, taught me quietly through my teenage years about the basics of literature and poetry. She held on dearly to the old days when people were allowed to express any kind of emotion besides overall contentment, back when culture was still considered important. I learned a lot from what she taught me, things I wasn't ever taught in school. Literature wasn't a subject when I was coming up.

In particular, my mother taught me a lot in the way of thematic elements of a novel. She essentially said each novel or work has a message, and its message varies depending on the reader. More importantly, she reassured that no one interpretation was right or wrong, that my views on one theme could vary greatly from another reader's.

Of course, the only readers I knew were my mother and me. I couldn't very well compare thoughts with any of my friends for fear of being lynched.

Anyway, it was through this learning that I realized these skills can be applied to everyday life. And I don't mean when you start getting really good at analyzing literature and then begin to analyze everything you pass on the street – although that did happen to me too – but particularly the part where just because you base feelings and thoughts on the evidence you gathered, it doesn't mean they're the only ones that should be considered. Altogether, if I took anything away from what my mother taught, it was the ability to be a more sympathetic person.

Which I'm guessing is one of the reasons why the oligarchy took literature out of school curriculum.

The point is, when my sister betrayed me later that night, my feelings weren't too hard on her. She had valid reasons for doing so, and I can't blame her for wanting to follow the law. Also, it's possible I cut her a lot of slack because Ampharos almost killed her, and afterwards I only ever saw her on TV.

When I was on Versant lost in the woods, I realized I was never going to be able to smuggle a mega pokémon into Camphrier if I didn't calm down. So when I finally felt my heart rate return to a normal pace, I gathered my bearings and found my path back home.

I think I at least played it off nicely on the outside. On the inside, it felt like something was beginning to corrode away at me and reveal my feelings, like a fuse had just been lit and was creeping its way up to my volatile emotions. Maybe I felt my life hanging in the balance of the decision I made, dangling there between the scale that held my moral and immoral choices.

In the moment, however, the only thought running through my head was that I just committed a capital crime. It's funny, when you commit a capital crime, it tends to be all you think about for a while. It can be dangerous when you're trying to get away with it.

It was dangerous, in particular, when I walked to the town arch and saw swarms of government officials patrolling the nearby streets. I stiffened apprehensively. Were they investigating the gunshots? Did they notice me? I had been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I wasn't paying attention to anything.

It was even more dangerous when the realization hit me in the middle of the street. They weren't here investigating the gunshots. They were, in fact, the source of the gunshots. They were here looking for Ampharos.

Putting my hood up, I snuck quickly and quietly to my house close to the stone wall. Gently twisting the brass doorknob, I pushed my way inside. My sister was standing in the dark of the kitchen, staring out the window. She spun around when she heard the door close.

"Where have you been?" she said in a strained whisper, as if scared the people outside would hear her. Her eyes were contorted into an expression I'd never seen from her before. It was normal for her to be relatively uptight, but in that moment I saw pure, unadulterated fear on her face.

"What's going on?" I asked, ignoring her question. I lowered my hood to get a better picture of her. Looking at her was like looking in a mirror. We met eye-to-eye. Her chestnut brown hair fell in an uncannily similar way as mine. We could have passed as twins.

Luckily enough, we weren't. The only reason I wasn't given to foster care was because she was eighteen at the time of my parents' death. She took legal guardianship over me so that we could stay together. She worked harder than anyone I've ever met in my life, with little to show for it, especially now.

"They say there's a mega pokémon on the loose," she said, slightly panicked but confirming my suspicions as to the presence of the government officials. Her downfall, much like my dad's, was that she believed in the regime too much. It wasn't really that either of them supported what was happening in Kalos, but more like they feared authority and just aimed to please. I should have considered that before I pulled out Ampharos' poké ball and showed her.

I don't know what I was thinking. I probably wasn't. I was probably still stuck on the fact I had Ampharos in my hand. I definitely could have handled that situation better.

Ampharos was just scarcely visible through the poké ball, but she could make him out in the moonlight, just like I did in the woods. Her reaction was much like mine at the time, but I imagine different thoughts were stirring through her head, like why did her sister decide to be one of the worst kinds of criminal all of a sudden?

I opened my mouth to explain, but I was just as speechless. She was now in on my deepest, darkest secret. She had become an accessory to my crime. In reality, I expected her to take care of it. I expected her to do something to save us. She always did. She was the grown up. She took care of me.

She did do something, just not what I expected.

In the next moment, she was making her way out the door to the throng of armed murderers patrolling the streets.

"Marian!" I yelled quietly. I followed her outside in an attempt to grab her, but I only made it as far as the top of the steps. She had already caught the attention of a government soldier. They conversed briefly in the middle of the street, and all I could do was rigidly stand there in fear and silence.

To this day, I don't know what she said to them. My most educated guess is she was trying to bargain for my life, to explain that I didn't know what I was doing, I was just a stupid eighteen-year-old, or maybe she sold me out to save her own hide. If the roles were switched, and she was the one protecting a living weapon, I may have considered selling her out for myself.

I don't like to think about it. Out of all the things I've seen, watching her betray me might have been one of the most disturbing. I know I may seem confident and resolute now, but growing up in the regime was scary. The government got people so paranoid that it wasn't impossible for them to consider or do things they would be opposed to doing under normal circumstances.

I saw a glimmer of regret in her eyes the minute she finished her conversation with the soldier and he alerted everyone in the immediate vicinity to my presence. I got a little woozy when all of a sudden I was staring into the barrels of twenty-or-so assault rifles.

"Set the poké ball on the ground and put your hands in the air, now!" he yelled as he shoved my sister onto her knees and pointed the gun at her head. She began to cry.

I didn't actually intend to directly defy what he was telling me to do. Inadvertently, fear and uncertainty made me go blank again. I still had my hand firmly clutched around the poké ball as I lifted my arms into the air. I don't know what happened next, if my finger slipped and I hit the button, or if Ampharos came out of his own free will, but in a flash, the large electric-type stood at the foot of the steps. A few soldiers turned their aim from me to him.

I ducked quickly into my doorway as I saw the yellow fur on his body dance with electricity, illuminating the dark area around us. He let out a roar as the sparks jumped from his body and electrocuted everyone in the immediate vicinity. Twenty-or-so people hit the ground, including my sister.

I stepped back outside in shock as I saw silhouettes of the motionless bodies lying there lifelessly on the grass and asphalt. I felt my legs buckle under me, and I had to steady myself against the railing of the stairs. Ampharos looked back at me, waiting for me to do something.

"It came from over there!" someone shouted in the distance.

I was hyperventilating again, but I managed to straighten up.

"Gree!" Ampharos cried in urgency. I snapped back to reality and began to run.


	4. chapter three: on thin ice

**chapter three: on thin ice**

* * *

It's ironic that through the all the events of the night, everything I had put myself through, all the attention I got for breaking the law, I still felt really insignificant. Running through the streets of Camphrier, the man-made buildings sat with an eerie stillness, as if condemning me for my actions. Atop the hill in the distance, the silhouette of Shabboneau Castle's towering tops was a consistent reminder that I wouldn't get away with what I'd done, that everything around me was owned by the oligarchy.

Camphrier Town itself seemed to have turned its back on me.

Maybe it felt more isolating because I knew what Camphrier had become. In the old days, it was the apex of culture in western Kalos. Shabboneau Castle had a lot of historical significance, which the oligarchy effectually erased after taking over.

When the oligarchy gave Malva one of the strongest mega pokémon in existence and she won the championship title with it, the oligarchy had Shabboneau renovated to house her. It became her summer home, the offical vacation home for the league champion. The oligarchy turned something once so historically significant into an entirely different symbol, a symbol of their wealth and power.

Camphrier itself didn't have a lot to brag about. Not many trainers became all that successful after they left. I remember everyone made a big deal when a kid, who had given up on becoming a trainer, completed his journey with four badges. It was almost unheard of for us. We were a quaint community, non-threatening, but Shabboneau stood in the distance as a constant reminder that we were still subjects of the regime, and it could do whatever it wanted to us.

It was kind of a red flag, however, when they gave Malva the mega pokémon. No one could object, of course, or else they'd be gunned down where they stood. They tried to sell it with the fact that only the strongest trainers – deemed so by the oligarchy itself – could legally own pokémon with potential for mega evolution. Once Malva defeated Diantha and took the position, however, they immediately came for Diantha's gardevoir. That kind of double standard didn't sit well with most people.

I learned later that was around the time they began the registration process. Those who own both a mega stone and a key stone must register their pokémon with the government for approval. Per regulation standards, those pokémon can be recalled by the government at any time for whatever reason. Whether or not the trainer gets them back is entirely up to the oligarchy. More often than not, the right to own mega pokémon went to government officials anyway.

This caused quite a stir among the people according to my mother. Hushed talk of the oligarchy's corruption became almost commonplace. But the oligarchy tightened up on their rules with threats, and talk stopped for the most part. Even with all these people who allegedly didn't believe a word of the government's propaganda, the oligarchy was still able to perpetuate the belief that pokémon with the potential for mega evolution are too dangerous to own, and people accepted without question in lieu of being pumped full of lead.

Kids my age never talked about it either. Teachers were obviously hired by the government. If we ever questioned what we learned, they would take it up higher and someone from the internal government itself would confront our families, so most of us kept our mouths shut. They made sure their web of power was spun with utmost strength, but somehow I slipped through the threads, and they were going to make sure I payed for it.

I heard the crack of more gunfire. Ampharos was behind me somewhere. In my panic, I wasn't really concerned about him anymore. He could competently take care of himself and _me _as I had learned a few minutes prior. As long as he was frying the officials behind me, I felt safer. With every flash of lightning, my beliefs were reassured.

Most of the townsfolk made their way indoors as the street massacre ensued, but a few stragglers eyeballed me as a I ran for my life, their expressions a mix of pity, fear, and judgment.

I craned my neck around to look at the spectacle behind me. In the dark, I could just make out Ampharos' frame trailing pretty far back. He was running, but he wasn't very fast. The western arch was a mere feet away from me. I was almost out.

I stopped in front of the arch entrance and turned back to Ampharos. The yellow pokémon relentlessly dropped bolt after bolt on his encroaching enemies, but our pursuers kept reappearing left and right. I contemplated whether or not I should keep going, but the realization that I couldn't survive in the wild was an all too present threat that kept me from leaving without him.

"Come on!" I cried out in desperation. "Finish them!"

Ampahros planted its feet firmly on the ground as the guns trained on it once more. In the dark sky I could narrowly make out faint wisps of gray clouds as they quickly began blending together. Ampharos staggered back a couple steps as the soldiers readied their weapons, but before any of them could pull the trigger, Ampharos raised his arms into the air and a jolt of lightning cracked the space in front of him, electrocuting the crowd of soldiers easily.

After that moment I remember an eerie stillness taking over. Everything was silent. Ampharos slowly turned to look at me as I put my face in my hands. I was seized by a cold sweat. Peering through my fingers I could faintly make out the scorched veins in the pale skin of the bodies lying before us. I started shaking.

Ampharos cooed quietly, urging me to make an action before we were attacked again. In the distance, I could make out townspeople gathering, too shocked in what I had just done to offer me any kind of support, too afraid to attempt apprehending me. To them I was no longer insignificant. In that moment I had broken a law even worse than the illegal harboring of a mega pokémon, I had defied the very institution that enforced these laws. I had become one of the worst criminals in the eyes of the oligarchy: an anarchist.

I sank to my knees and started hyper-ventilating. The next thing I knew I was vomiting on the ground, the crowd of onlookers growing bigger by each passing second. I heard hushed murmurs within the masses. I looked towards them with tears in my eyes, and then the survivalist instincts grabbed me again. I didn't know what they were going to do. Call the stasis officers?

I leaped up from the ground and ran towards the pile of bodies in front of me. I closed my eyes and dove for a handgun. The crowd dispersed almost instantly, like a pack of rodents startled by its predator. I called Ampharos back into his poké ball and shoved the gun into the waist of my pants. With renewed vigor, I ran through the west arch of Camphrier and didn't look back.

* * *

Among a lot of other things, that night was immensely liberating. It was like the thin ice I'd been tiptoeing on all my life had finally shattered. Sure, the water below was bitter and cold and black, but I no longer had to worry about cracking under pressure. That ship had sailed, and it marked the beginning of my transformation from a scared little girl to a fearless revolutionary.

At this point I was not accustomed to adventuring. I didn't make it far before the cold won over my body and I had to stop. I found a spot deep in the trees to curl up on the hard ground, no fire, no water, no food. Exhaustion had a firm grip on me. It pulled my eyelids lower and lower with each passing second.

For some reason I wasn't afraid of death anymore. The stark brutality of nature should have been a threat, but it was altogether so beautiful. It was a place so equally free and unforgiving at the same time. No laws were kept here. There were no punishments for doing what was natural. So hypothermia didn't concern me. Being the next tasty meal to something vicious wasn't a fear of mine. What scared me most was falling back into the hands of the institution. I feared death by the will of the oligarchy.


	5. chapter four: baptism

**chapter four: baptism**

* * *

I winced when I opened my eyes to bright rays of the sun glaring down on me. The breeze gently kissed my skin, urging me awake. My body was curled up next to the base of a tall tree in the densest part of the forest. I ran a shaky hand through my hair, attempting to smooth out the rat's nest. My once soft brown curls were now entangled with twigs and dead grass from the ground. My body ached.

The greatest disappointment, though, was waking up on the ground and realizing that the events of the previous night had been no bad dream like I had hoped. The gun I stole pressed firmly into my thigh and the cold plastic poké ball in the pocket of my hoodie were the greatest reminders of my transgressions.

On the ever-so-faint bright side, I wasn't dead yet.

My muscles winced as I stood up and straightened out. I pulled the gun out of my pocket and held it gently in my hand. It was heavier than I expected. I held it up and aimed at something in the distance. I couldn't hold it steadily. I was too weak, too hungry, yet deep inside me I felt an uneasy sickness, the kind one experiences only after making an awful decision.

And yet, life continued on in my surroundings. Time and space didn't stop for me. Nature ruled with an iron fist in this domain, a domain in which life and death were mere consequences of any one single action. I had to move on.

Stuffing the gun back into the waistband of my pants, I pulled out Ampharos' poké ball and let him out. He materialized before me in an unnatural white flash.

"So what now?" I asked him with undertones of weariness and depression. His reply was a simple perk of the ears. I stared into his eyes searching for guidance, but he only gave me a look of caution and uneasiness, like he was afraid of me.

Funny, a big bad vicious mega pokémon afraid of a puny little human.

* * *

I walked for hours with Ampharos by my side. At first I thought he might put me in more danger, just in case there were any unsuspecting humans lurking in the trees, but the fact that I had no protection from the pokémon that inhabited the forest kept me from returning him.

I glanced over at him occasionally, and each time he returned my gaze with a worried expression, like he thought I was pushing myself too far. My feet ached, I could hardly walk straight, and I was starving. I don't know what he wanted from me though. I saved his life after all.

Through all the chaos of the previous night, I didn't notice that he was holding a key stone and his ampharosite. I was a little taken aback when he tried to offer the key stone to me. I hadn't really even thought about whether or not I was keeping him in the long run. The thought of pawning him off on some other unlucky soul briefly flickered in and out of my thoughts. I could make the decision later. For now, I needed him to survive. I took the bracelet.

Somewhere along the way the trees began thinning out and I noticed a small river in the distance. Hobbling over to the shoreline, I dropped to my knees and cupped my shaky hands together. I scooped handful after handful of water past my chapped lips. With an angelic coo, Ampharos knelt down beside me and did the same.

I never was baptized. I actually never was exposed to religion in the first place, didn't even know what it was until age eight or nine when my mother told me. The oligarchy is all I've ever known, all most of us have ever known. Therefore, it's a problem for the people of Kalos to put their faith and trust into things when the very institution we've been led to believe is the be-all-end-all has consistently failed us.

That's why, in my state of crazed distrust, I later almost killed the man who offered me salvation.

The water felt amazing. It left my face, my skin, with a cool, refreshing feeling, and when I had finally had enough, when I finally began to pay attention to my surroundings, I noticed it across the stream. It was a small, quaint cottage, and then I noticed them, the small, quaint elderly couple staring at me and the monster kneeling beside me in complete and utter disbelief.

I froze in fear. I had come so far already, too far to be taken now.

The two briefly exchanged words before the elderly woman began to hobble inside her house. Ampharos' ears perked at the sight of them. He let out a spark of electricity. I shakily dug out his poké ball and called him back. At this point, the hair on the back of my neck was standing up. I pulled the gun out of my pocket and held it behind my back.

The old man motioned for me to come over to him. He began walking over to the bridge in the distance. At this point, it was do or die for me.

I sprinted across the bank and onto to the wooden bridge. It felt unsteady under my heavy footsteps, like it could crack at any moment. I stopped in front of the man and shakily pointed my gun at him.

"Don't move," I said darkly.

He dropped the wooden cane and put two feeble hands in the air. His arms shook either out of fear or weakness. He was thin, malnourished for someone his age. His shaky body looked as if it could snap under his weight at any second. His face, while crossed repeatedly with lines of old age, held a serene expression. His piercing blue eyes reminded me of the water.

"Listen to me. I just want to help you," he said. His voice cracked. He sounded exhausted.

"Just shut up and walk." I motioned with my gun over to his cottage, trying to convey a sense of power. My insides felt as if they were melting. I felt a hot apprehension take over me. I was fucking terrified.

Walking through the front door, I could see almost all of the interior from where I was standing. Everything was made of wood. The living room was a small expanse of space in which I currently stood. It was furnished with a small bookshelf, a couch, a rug, and a small television. Directly ahead of me there was a make-shift hallway that led into the kitchen on the right, which was only divided from the living room by a bar of marble counter space, the bathroom on the left, and the bedroom straight to the back. From their bedroom, there was a glass sliding door that led into the backyard which appeared to be filled with pokémon.

His wife jumped in surprise when we walked into the house. She dropped the phone pressed firmly to her ear when I pointed the gun at her.

"Who are you calling?" I asked coolly, trying to maintain my composure, but I felt my voice shake. She put her arms up over her head.

"We just want to save you," she said in a quiet panic. Her deep brown eyes reflected pure fear.

It was all a facade for me. I had no power over them. I could have killed them, sure, but in the end it was still me against the world.

"Shut up!" I shouted. "Tell me who you were calling!"

"Please Miss," the old man began. "She was just calling a friend. Please, you have to trust us. We can help you."

I had no faith.

"Get on the couch," I barked. The two of them complied meekly, taking each other by hand and sitting there calmly. I walked over to the phone and smashed it with my heel.

I don't know what came over me next. Survival instincts took over I guess because I'm not a thief, but I figured I had some time until whoever they called would show up, so I took the chance to take things I'd need out in the wilderness.

They conveniently had everything I could ever need. I found a small black duffle bag in their room and began filling it with things I found in their small kitchen. The refrigerator was packed to the brim with water bottles, their cupboards stocked with dried foods and pokémon feed, drawers filled with useful utilities like pocket knives. It was like this was meant to happen.

When I was finished, I turned the gun back on them. I froze in place for a split second, trying to decide what to do. I'm ashamed to say that the idea of killing them crossed my mind. I guess in the wake of demise, our instincts will always be to look out for ourselves first.

I shoved the idea out of my mind and walked through the front door back outside. A short gust of wind hit my face, and then I saw him and froze with fear. This was a man. He was tall and strong. He was young, my age. He intimidated me. He had the power to end my life any way he saw fit.

I pointed the gun at him.

He lifted his arms up above his head and I got a good look at them through his white t-shirt. He wore tight fitting jeans which were torn up in various places. His tennis shoes were scuffed. Had he been out in the wild?

He looked like a survivor.

"Please don't shoot me," he said clearly.

I took a step towards him. "Then you're going to get out of my way and let me go."

I had a better look now. He had the body of a man, but his face held a childlike vigor. His bright green eyes and messy brown hair held the innocence of youth. If I hadn't known better, I might've thought he'd been untouched by the state of Kalos.

I started side-stepping away from him.

"Just wait okay," he said, flashing me a reassuring smile. "I have to show you something."

He slowly began reaching down into his pocket. I didn't know what he was about to pull out. I started panicking and pulled the trigger.

Thankfully, the safety was on.

He heard the click and lunged forward, attempting to grab the gun from me. He swung his arms up to grab me, but I ducked under his reach and maneuvered my way to his side. I gave him a firm crack on the head with the butt of my gun, sending him falling to the ground. I began to run.

Suddenly, the flash of white light appeared in front of me again. Ampharos materialized, blocking my way.

"Gree," he cried meekly. Ampharos began to walk over to the man on the ground, nursing his bloody head. I turned around to look. He knelt down over him. Ampharos knew him.

I watched in utter confusion as Ampharos helped the man up into a sitting position with its small arms. Blood flowed steadily down the man's face, but he still flashed me a smile.

"Can I show you now?" he asked. He pulled out of his pocket a small plastic ball, similar to mine, but with a different design. He pressed the middle button, enlarging it, and tossed it into the air towards me. As the white light faded, I felt the ground beneath me begin to shake a little.

After fully materializing in front of me, the pokémon let out a deafening roar. The bird pokémon among the trees scattered. I shrunk away from it. I had to shield my eyes. It's bright, clean steel reflected the sun into my face harshly.

It was Aggron.


	6. chapter five: unbeliever

**chapter five: unbeliever**

* * *

"She's already proven herself."

I sat quietly at the dining room table in the house I had ransacked and stole from not even an hour prior, whose inhabitants I considered murdering in the process, with the man I physically assaulted using an illegal firearm, and contemplated how my decisions led me to this point.

The old man and the young man were "quietly" having an argument in the bedroom. The old lady had just fixed me some tea, and she was now sitting across the table from me, staring at me awkwardly with gray eyes that matched the color of her thinning hair. She held an uncertain expression, like she was actually terrified of me but she couldn't do anything about it because she was just doing her job.

The young man, still gushing blood, introduced himself as Aimé. Outside, he explained to me that this was his grandparents' house, that they were pokémon breeders, and that the three of them were collectively apart of a resistance.

And that was all he had the chance to tell me before he was taken away by his grandfather and reprimanded in hushed tones.

I gently took a sip of my tea and fixated my eyes to a spot on the table.

After a few minutes of hushed arguing, they finally stopped.

"I'm calling Korrina," the old man said. Aimé came out of the room in a huff. He took a seat next to me. I tensed up as he leaned in.

I tried to avoid his gaze, but the more I did, the more it felt like he was boring into me. He was kind of intense, I came to realize. I didn't like him at first.

"So you must be Moira," he said.

I snapped my head up to meet his gaze, a light frown furrowing my brow. "How do you know me?"

He leaned back in his chair, but he still didn't look relaxed. "You're all over the news, of course, and I've been looking for you." He blinked slowly and shrugged. "Well, I've been looking for Ampharos, honestly. Speaking of, he seems to have taken quite a liking to you."

The old lady shot her eyes back and forth between us as we talked. The entire situation made me uncomfortable, which was ironic considering this was the first chance I really had to rest safely in almost an entire day.

"Well, I did save his life," I said flatly.

Aimé pulled the corner of his mouth up into a slight smirk, still not tearing his eyes away from me. It felt like he was afraid I would try and run away again or something. No matter how uncomfortable the situation was for me, I realized that this was my best chance at survival, unless this was some elaborate hoax set up by the government in order to corner me. I knew better, though. If these people were government officials they would have killed me by now.

Aimé averted his gaze for the first time in the conversation.

"I have a proposition for you," he said slowly. His grandmother's eyes were trained intensely on him at this point. "The way you fought for your own survival over the past day is astounding. Not many people would still be alive in your position. You're a fighter, and I want you to join our resistance."

"Aimé!" I heard his grandfather yell from the other room. I met the young man's eyes.

"Sounds like some people disagree with you."

His mouth widened, lips narrowed. He showed me his teeth and his dimples and grabbed my hand gently. It took a lot for me not to react violently, to suppress my instinct to protect myself.

"The good news is, it's not up to them." He leaned forward on and rested his elbows on the table. "I'm going to take you to the Believers, the people who lead our resistance. They are seasoned fighters and their level of experience predates the oligarchy's rule. After a couple of tests, they will determine if you're fit to join us."

"And then what?" I asked flatly.

"We can sort that out when the time comes." He saw the doubt in my eyes. "I promise, the resistance is very open to newcomers, people who have been turned away by the oligarchy."

It all seemed surreal to me. This is the first I'd ever heard of any such resistance in my entire life. This so called acceptance concerned me. How could they be so sure all their members were against the government? But the fact that I had never heard of them was slightly reassuring, even though I grew up in the middle of no where.

To me, this acceptance-discretion paradox spoke of either their confidence or their delusion.

"What makes you so sure I'm going to come with you?" I asked. I wanted to test him, to see how safe this was, but all my cards had been layed out on the table since last night. I couldn't front. I couldn't lie about my condition. I couldn't say I had gotten any better offers or that I was about to be rescued. All of Kalos knew now that I was against my very own government. I didn't have anything else up my sleeve.

He gave me a slight smirk. "You can either trust me, or die out in the wilderness alone. But trust me when I say that you have potential to be a fighter. I saw it out there when you were about to kill me. You'll be safer with us."

In the same way Aimé felt some twisted reassurance in me attempting to murder him, I felt the same kind of feeling when he told me that without him, I would die.

"Your decision is very important to us, Moira. We can help you, and you can help us."

His grandfather came back into the front room with a clear expression.

"Korrina has agreed to see her."

* * *

After learning the news, the old couple began treating me like guests instead of like someone who had just almost killed them. They gave me a clean towel and allowed me to use their shower to properly wash up. While I was in there, the old woman began to make a home-cooked meal.

My sister was never good at cooking, so after my parents died, we basically survived off of anything we could eat raw. Fruits and vegetables were a major staple for me. Anything we could buy packaged was also a viable option, but we were extremely poor.

I turned the shower off and heard bits and pieces of their conversation through the door.

"This goes against every protocol we've ever taken. How you can just blindly trust this – this inexperienced _girl_ astounds me," the old man said confidently.

"Papa," Aimé said. "What we just saw in her is more than we've ever seen in any of the other candidates right from the beginning. Actions speak so much louder than words. I have faith in her."

"You've known her for two hours," the woman said. "Besides, you can't compare them. The others had their chance under different circumstances. You don't know that her recklessness won't get us all discovered and killed."

"It doesn't matter," he replied hotly. "Korrina has given her blessing."

"Well we all know how jaded Korrina can be, just like you," the old man grumbled.

I dressed quickly and stepped out the door, if only for them to stop talking about me. It worked, because as soon as I stepped into the front room, they all shut up.

Aimé and his grandfather were sitting across from each other at the table. The grandmother had her back turned to me for a second, but she abruptly faced me and set the dish on the table.

"Come sit, Girl," she commanded. I walked over and sat down gently. She gave each one of us a plate, and set one down for herself before she dished for us. "Now listen closely, my husband and I may not agree with it," she said as she finished piling food onto our plate and sat down, "but Aimé has seen something in you, something to which Korrina has decided to humor. It is a great honor to go in front of the Believers and present yourself, an honor which does not happen to just anyone.

"Me and my husband run this day care facility for all trainers in Kalos, law-abiding or not, but for the most part, without the support of the resistance, trainers don't tend to do as well. The truth is, we have a lot of abandoned pokémon, and you can't use Ampharos in public. Regardless of if Korrina accepts you, there will still be a spot for you in the resistance, and either way, you will need a pokémon. We are going to provide one for you."

She began eating.

"For now," Aimé said. "We're going to assume you make it into the division of the resistance you are auditioning for. I am in the same division. We're called the Soldiers."

"I don't know if I want to be a Soldier," I said.

Aimé gave me a concerned look. He was putting a lot of stock into this. "And it's fine if you don't, but only Soldiers and Believers are granted the use of mega pokémon because of scarcity. If you make the position though, I hope you will consider taking it. We could definitely use you since we lost Matthieu, Ampharos' trainer before you."

That statement definitely did not inspire any profound sense of anarchism inside me, considering it was easy to guess what he died from after I heard the barrage of gunfire and found Ampharos' poké ball in a forest.

"If you do not become a Soldier, there is still widespread acceptance for you as a Worker. Workers provide for the resistance, like my grandparents. They give money, offer safe housing, and do anything the resistance as a whole needs to thrive. It will be considerably harder for you to find a niche as a Worker though, considering you don't have much to provide, and the entire country is looking for you. Also, we would have to give Ampharos to a different trainer."

When he mentioned that, I felt a little defensive. Before, giving up Ampharos to someone else seemed like a reasonable idea. Now that it was an actual possibility, I was less than eager to comply. My life hadn't almost ended countless times in the past day just for me to end up following another set of laws. I let out an incredulous laugh and the whole table looked at me.

"The way I'm hearing it is that anyway this breaks down I still have to join you guys. You're just as bad as the oligarchy, and in case you didn't notice, they didn't do such a great job controlling me in the past few days either."

The table was silent.

"Well," the old man muttered, "she's certainly headstrong enough for this job."

"Don't think of yourself with so much importance, Girl," the woman shouted sternly, the wrinkles around her eyes contorting into something that appeared to be a frown. "You are more than welcome to walk out that door and get yourself killed, but I promise, none of us will bat an eye. What we are offering you is indisputable. You get salvation."

As much as I didn't like it, I couldn't argue with that logic.

"Alright," I said with a sigh. "Give me a pokémon."


	7. chapter six: helpless darkness

**chapter six: helpless darkness**

* * *

I was never afraid of the dark.

"You'll actually be going out alone," Aimé said with a smile. He grabbed Ampharos' poké ball from the pocket of my hoodie. "Find a pokémon and catch it, good luck!"

"What?" I asked as he placed an empty poké ball in my hand and gave me a light shove out the back door. He slid the door in place and drew the curtain before I could say anything else. I stood alone on the porch, the light from the lamp above me flickering in and out.

I banged on the door with my fist. "Hey! How am I supposed to do this?"

"Figure it out!" Aimé replied.

I turned around and looked into the backyard. It was fenced in. It was a small enclosure, and I couldn't see any pokémon. I could only hear them as they scrambled to find hiding spots in the dark. Finding a pokémon here didn't seem very practical.

And then, as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I realized that a part of the fence was missing. Instead of the two rows on either side of me joining together in the middle along the river, a gate was propped open by a stone, and I could make out a long tree trunk laid across the banks for easy access across to the other side.

I walked forward, trying to get a better view in the moonlight.

Further inspection revealed that there was indeed a fence on the other side of the river, but I only made out the row across the bank. The rest of it was shielded by the pitch black army of trees on the other side.

It seemed daunting, but I wasn't afraid of the dark.

I slowly stepped off the porch, clutching the empty poké ball in my hand. I took a few steps into the yard and paused. The sun had dipped completely below the horizon now, and I couldn't see much, but the stillness brought back memories of the previous night. Cautiously walking into the backyard, I actually felt apprehensive.

But the dark never scared me. There was something so natural about it, so omnipresent. Humanity couldn't harness it like the light because darkness is immeasurable. In the absence of dark there is nothing. It just simply is.

Even still today, I like to be in the dark. I know it sounds weird, but it makes me feel comfortable. Maybe it was for the same reason people are usually afraid of the dark, because they don't know what lurks in its depths. I wanted to be what lurked in its depths. I wanted to hide.

But I guess there was no hiding anymore, not after the previous night. No amount of darkness could conceal me, and that's what I was afraid of.

I began walking forward, digging in my pocket for the key stone that Ampharos had given me earlier in the day. Pulling it out, I ran it through my fingers, feeling its soft, smooth surface. It was small, maybe the size of a marble.

It glinted in the moonlight.

I snapped my head up when I suddenly heard a caw echo throughout the air. I heard a shuffling sound above me, and then something dive-bombed, raking my arm with its talons and scooping up the key stone in the process.

I cried out in pain, and then followed its shadow as it flew across the river. I took off running.

I felt a creeping panic come over me. The fact that I had just lost one of the resistance's precious key stones, one of the key ingredients in the recipe for mega evolution, seemed detrimental. They were for sure going to turn me away now. I had just made a colossal mistake: being careless.

I felt the blood running down my arm. The wound stung, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I had to find this thing before I got turned away from the resistance without even getting a chance to prove myself.

I stopped cautiously at the river bank. Pulling myself up onto the tree trunk and assuring that I had steady balance, I took light, easy steps across. When my feet touched ground again, I stared deep into the depths of the forest and shuddered.

Anybody else would have given up by now, but even though I knew it was probably futile, I couldn't stand the thought of losing it. I had something to prove, and I would have rather died then go back to Aimé and his grand-parents without a pokémon _and_ without my keystone.

I ran into the forest before I could change my mind.

It was thick. The moon struggled to shine through the dense canopy above me, and even with what little help it offered, I could hardly see my hand in front of my face.

But then I heard the same caw echo throughout the trees.

I quickly ran in the direction it came from, stopping as I was again lost in the darkness. I heard more shuffling from above, and it again dive-bombed on me. It raked its talons across my shoulder this time, tearing away pieces of my hoodie. I cried out in pain and then took off after it again.

But I lost it. It was moving too quickly among the treetops.

I tried to focus, but the pain had become extremely unbearable. I closed my eyes and put my head in my hands. As the pain subsided, I didn't hear it caw anymore, but I could still hear the shuffling above me.

I let arms fall to my side and listened to where it was coming from. It sounded like the pokémon wasn't moving, like it had turned its attention from me to something else. I focused on the noise, a slight shuffling, subtle against the wind.

I stepped slowly and carefully, making sure I didn't make any noises as I walked across the floor of fallen twigs and dead leaves. I honed my ears in to where it was. I was really close now.

In the moonlight, I saw various items twinkling at a hole in the bark of a tree. I made out the silhouette of a small bird pokémon rearranging its things, the things it stole.

I couldn't see very well, but I picked up a rock from off the ground and chucked it as hard as I could at the mysterious pokémon. I think I hit it, because it retaliated with a loud caw before it took to the air again.

It was above me again, but I could still hear it flapping against the wind. I had a good clue of where it was, and it was about to dive-bomb on me again.

For an instance, I braced myself for its impact. But I reassured myself that I wasn't afraid of the dark.

I focused all of my senses to pinpoint its location above me, and before it made impact, I reached up and grabbed it by the talon, shoving it as hard as I could against the base of the tree. It hit with a cry of pain before falling onto the ground, and I finally got a good look at it: a murkrow, the bringer of misfortune.

I clutched my empty poké ball in my hand and chucked it against his face.


	8. chapter seven: lucky misfortune

**chapter seven: lucky misfortune**

* * *

The ball rested with ease.

I walked over to the tree and peered inside. It was hard to make out all of what exactly had been stolen by this bird, but I could tell there was a lot here. I scooped as much of it as I could out of the trunk and stuffed it into my hoodie.

Gently picking up my new team member off the ground, I imagined the looks he was giving me from inside the poké ball.

I chucked it and out he popped with a firm cry of indignation. He swooped down on my, talons primed to rake me again, but I just pushed him out of the air and sent him rolling across the ground.

"Hey!" I shouted. "You're mine now! You will listen to me!"

It was hard to see him in the dark, but I got the feeling that he hopped up onto his feet. He started cawing at me again, clearly resenting his recent capture. He wouldn't cooperate with me.

"Listen," I said calmly, getting down on my knees. "Lead me back to the daycare facility. I'll give you something back from your stash."

He didn't make a noise or any sort of movement, as if he were contemplating my request. He finally responded with a low grumble and took to the air again, flying away from me.

_So that's a yes, then,_ I thought.

I followed his shadow through the forest until he lead me back to the river bank. Together, we made our way to the house. The light on the porch had stopped flickering and was just off altogether now.

I knocked on the door.

"Aimé," I shouted. "I caught one."

I froze when I heard unfamiliar voices on the other side of the house. I peeked into the window. All the lights were off.

"Listen, these orders came straight from the oligarchy. We need to bring this bitch in or Bryony will gut us."

"Shut up," someone replied. "I think I heard something over here. Back me up. That damned Ampharos put seven of our men in a coma."

I sunk to the deck and started panicking. I was so close to surviving this, at least for a little longer, and it was all about to be for nothing. I didn't stand a chance against these guards, not without Ampharos. Murkrow was tiny, and even if he could fight them off, it was questionable as to whether he actually _would_. He hopped beside me, seemingly uninterested.

Where were the people who were supposed to be protecting me? Was this all some elaborate scheme to get Ampharos back and leave me out to dry?

I couldn't think about it. None of that mattered now. If I didn't try to fight, my situation would be even more hopeless.

"Murkrow," I whispered, his glowering eyes boring into mine through the darkness. "If you distract them and lead them into the forest, I'll give you _two_ of your things back."

He gave me a slow, frustrated blink before turning away from me. His small body was almost completely invisible against the dark ground. Taking to the air, he flew over to the men and out of my sight. I heard one of them shout. A moment later, Murkrow appeared again, a small shiny item clamped in his beak as he headed into the forest.

"Hey! That thing took my scope!"

I tiptoed quietly off of the deck and ran towards the other side of the house. I hopped over the fence, stepping quietly towards the front of the house. So far so good.

I heard the men grunt and assumed they were making their way into the backyard.

"Look! It flew into the forest! Come on!"

I took a deep breath of relief.

The bag I had packed before almost murdering my host couple and their grandson in a frenzy was still sitting on the counter of their kitchen when I had left. With any luck it would still be there – although it seemed I had virtually run out of all my luck when I decided to become an anarchist.

I pushed lightly on the door, opening it a crack. The living room was so dark I couldn't see anything. I tiptoed carefully into the kitchen and felt around for my bag.

I heard the faintest creak come from somewhere behind me, and then suddenly as I began to turn, a very blunt metal object made contact with my head and almost sent me to the ground. The dark room was alight with the stars in my vision.

I let out a cry of pain.

"Moira?" It was the old lady.

"Oh thank Diancie," said another voice. It sounded like Aimé's. "I was just about to go look for you."

"I'm very sorry, Dear. I thought the officers would have found you by now," the old lady said.

A melange of emotions coursed through my body. My depth and sense of compassion were off, as they often were after being physically assaulted, but the lack of faith from the old daycare couple was getting frustrating. Although, maybe my feelings were amplified because I was angry about being hit in the face.

"Where's Ampharos?" I asked with clear disdain.

Aimé handed me back his poké ball.

"You caught something, right?" he asked.

I was about to reply but was interrupted by an apprehensive silence after we all heard a knock at the door. Aimé grabbed me by the arm roughly and pulled me into the bathroom with him. He closed the door and locked it, turning the lights on. I could see deep circles under his lively green eyes.

"Stay quiet."

I heard the old lady go answer the door.

"Is there a problem, Officer?" she asked politely.

"Not at all ma'am," he replied. "We just came to see if you or your husband have noticed anything off around here lately."

"Oh, well, I can't say that I ha–"

"Yes actually," the old man said. I could hear him lightly shuffling to stand at his wife's side. "I was outside yesterday tending to the pokémon in the forest, only, they all seemed to be frightened by something off in the distance. I went over to investigate and – well, I'll be damned if it weren't the strangest thing I've seen in my life – there in the treetops on the other side of the fence, a colony of sneasel. Sneasel of all pokémon! All the way out here! Have you ever heard of anything so strange?"

* * *

After Aimé deemed it safe enough to exit the bathroom, I went out to the back porch to wait for Murkrow to return. He eventually came back (much to my surprise) still holding the officer's scope in his beak. I recalled him to his ball with a firm "thanks" before walking back into the house. I once again had a conference with the family at their dining table. I ran them through the events I experienced in the forest.

"You caught that pesky murkrow?" the old woman asked. "Well, you're doing us a favor at least."

"But you did get the keystone back?" Aimé asked.

"Yes – I mean, I think so." I realized I didn't actually have a chance to check. I emptied my pockets all out. Murkrow's stash was bigger than I'd originally thought. The various silver and golden objects shined in the light as they crashed across the table.

The old woman gasped and reached into the pile. She pulled out a small silver pendant in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. She began tearing up.

"Wulfric gave this to me when I first joined the resistance," she said. The name didn't mean anything to me, but a somber silence fell over the table. "I thought it was gone forever." I looked to Aimé for clarification, but his gaze was fixed on his grandmother. I decided to leave it.

After a few seconds of scanning the pile with my eyes, I found what I was looking for.

"The keystone!" I said as I shoved my hand in there and grabbed it out. Aimé turned his attention to me. His eyes reflected a shift in emotion.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Diancie. Okay, now that you've found it, we can head to Cyllage City. We need to go now, before your search party gets there first."

"What's in Cyllage City?" I asked. "Why can't we stay here for a few days until they give up?"

"We can't afford to waste that much time. They likely believe you won't survive long enough to make it to the coast at all. They're going to stick around here for a long while, and the longer it takes to find you, the more desperate they're going to get. They'll prefer to take you live. It's easier to make an example out of you."

Surprisingly, the thought didn't make me shudder.

"If we go now," he continued, "we'll be a good distance ahead of them by morning. When we get to Cyllage City, I can contact someone to come change up your appearance. That will buy you at least some anonymity."

After our discussion at the table, the old couple bid us farewell and safe travels before heading off to bed. Remembering my promise to Murkrow, I shoved all of his stolen objects into the bag – the one I had coincidentally stolen along with many other supplies – before I was finally ready to head off.


	9. chapter eight: false pretenses

**chapter eight: false pretenses**

* * *

We left in the middle of the night, which was unnerving, not because I was afraid of what lurked in nature. It had become apparent after capturing Murkrow against his will that I at least had some morsel of a chance in the wild, but when an army of humans is hunting you down in a dark forest...

Well, like I said, unnerving.

But, even though I hated to admit it, Aimé was the only person I could trust right now. Even after his and his grandparents' house was overrun by government officials, they never abandoned me. They were, in fact, the only people in the country who _hadn't_ abandoned me.

He and I walked in silence for a very long time. The scratches along my arms from Murkrow's attacks were really beginning to hurt. The sleeves of my hoodie were now stained with blood, pieces of cloth ripped away by his sharp talons.

I don't know how far we made it before we stopped. It was relieving not to have to worry about where I was going or what I was doing. Aimé was a seasoned survivalist. We stayed close to the path for most of the night, just far enough away for us to be in the clear of the few travelers who hiked through it, but close enough to keep us going the right way. Eventually, I followed Aimé as he veered away from it and went further into the trees. Like a professional, he found a nice, small clearing for us to camp out in.

It was obvious that he was tired. Strangely enough, I wasn't. I was still running on adrenaline.

He put together a fire. We sat close to it. I could see the first sign of the sun's rays beginning to climb over the treetops.

"We're probably about halfway to the Connecting Cave. We should be in Cyllage in about four days."

Another uncomfortable silence settled over us.

"Thank you," I said shakily. "I probably wouldn't be alive right now if it weren't for you."

In the light of the fire, I saw him grin. "I don't believe that." His face became even more animated with each passing second. "I've never met anyone with as much tenacity as you. You're a survivor. Ampharos got really lucky that night."

_Lucky,_ I thought. _Right._

I looked down. "What was Ampharos' old trainer like?"

Aimé's visage softened. "Matthieu?" He looked down. "I don't mean to scare you, but Ampharos has been through a lot of trainers."

A chill ran down my spine. It did scare me.

He looked up again, fixing a hard look at something off in the distance. "Matthieu was," he said, pausing, "very headstrong, quiet, always felt like he had something to prove. Still, he had a very relaxing presence. We all felt...okay, somehow, when he was around. Safer, I guess." His voice began to shake. "He was on a mission that night. Somehow, the stasis officers caught on to it and began tracking him, which happens sometimes but it's usually not an issue. It's policy for us to form our pokémon teams around how to get out of any and every situation possible if we need to. The threat flew under our radars though until too late, and he was out in the field alone, which is also not something we try to practice very often."

He paused again, this time averting his gaze into the fire.

"I was in his ear when it happened. I heard the whole thing."

"They...shot him?" I asked quietly, recalling the events of the night I found Ampharos. "I think I heard it happen, too."

He nodded and wiped away a tear before it began to roll down his cheek. "The other Soldiers," he began again, choked, "they're not...the easiest to get along with, we'll say. But I really liked Matthieu. Everyone did."

This time the tears began to stream down his face. I thought desperately on whether I should change the subject or just leave the conversation entirely.

"How many of you – us," I said, fumbling for words, " – Soldiers. How many Soldiers are there?"

"Well," he said with a sigh, "regardless of if you make it in or not, we still need a replacement for Ampharos, so that makes," he paused, counting in his head, "five...six, seven, counting me and hypothetically you. And then there are the four Believers who lead us. But you'll meet them all soon."

There was another silence.

"Who is Wulfric?" I asked finally.

Aimé straightened up, regaining his composure. "I didn't know him, I've only heard stories. He was apparently the reason the resistance began in the first place. When the oligarchy took over and began forcing people to turn over their mega pokémon, a lot of gym leaders were left in a compromising position. Wulfric was an ice-type gym leader. He had an abomasnow."

I nodded.

"Of course, as a trainer, it was hard for him to give up his pokémon, and he didn't back the oligarchy in the slightest. He couldn't run though, not like Valerie. He was too old already. So he took execution. He gave my grandmother the pendant in the shape of the fleur-de-lis on his way up to the noose. She was his apprentice, you see. She was going to become the next Snowbelle City gym leader. She traded her future in to help build the resistance."

I shuddered. I knew the oligarchy was ruthless, but I'd never heard anything like this. Come to think of it, I didn't know much at all about the past, only the lies that had been fed to me in school.

"What happened to Abomasnow?"

"The oligarchy got it anyway. Wulfric could have for all intents and purposes just given it up and saved his own life in the process. Must have been a pride thing with him though, or maybe he was just testing their bluff and his luck ran out. I don't know. But a few months later it came out that they'd found its mega stone, too. I think my grandma said it was the first one they'd ever found. They have a handful now."

He looked away again at something in the trees, clenching his jaws. His eyes lit up like a fire.

"You know, mega pokémon aren't even that powerful. Yeah, they can deal and take lots of damage, but they are by no means invincible or altogether dangerous. The oligarchy only wants them as a means to control the population even more. They only care about power and money, not the happiness of their people. I truly believe that if they get their hands on them all, they're going to find a way to manufacture them and sell them to the masses. And then it's going to come out that all these people died in vain and gave up their pokémon under false pretenses just for the entire process to come full circle again. And all for a little bit of money."

A grunt of disgust escaped his lips. I considered pressing the subject further, but I could tell he was exhausted.

"Anyway," he said again, "you should get some sleep. I'll keep watch for a while."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I'm not tired. I'll keep watch first. You get some sleep."


	10. chapter nine: kamikaze pilot

**chapter nine: kamikaze pilot**

* * *

I continued to follow Aimé's lead for days, and for days, we didn't run across anyone.

I didn't realize just how barren the trails were presently. My dad used to tell me stories of his childhood, when he went on his journey. Back then it was all a kid needed. School wasn't required because kids learned so much more from going on a journey anyway. It was a kind of practical education, not what they taught us in school these days.

At some point, my dad stopped talking about his glory days. At some point, I realized, he stopped talking altogether.

Even under the circumstances, I saw the appeal to adventuring. It was freeing, exciting in the moments I could push the ever-looming presence of my uncertain demise out of my mind. As the days rolled on, it seemed to be getting easier to do just that, however. The more days we spent in the woods, the faster nature became my solace.

Aimé didn't offer much in the way of information. He seemed to, more often than not, want to talk about something else whenever I tried to broach difficult subjects. I don't know if he noticed it, but I could tell he had a profound interest in trivial things. He was an over-thinker, just like me. And he liked to talk about them. Often. Aimé talked a lot.

"My favorite tree is the evergreen," he said one day as we walked, he a few paces ahead of me. "They're like the kamikaze pilots of the tree world. One time I was out alone on the night of a really bad storm. I mean a _really_ bad one. The winds got up to probably ninety-or-so miles per hour. I ducked for safety in a nearby cave until it passed, and when I went back outside, tons of trees lost their branches, some snapped almost completely in half, just hanging by a thread on their trunks. Not the evergreens though – oh no – most of them had been uprooted completely. I just imagine them flying through the air like 'well if we have to die, might as well take as many things with us on the way out.' Their roots are so short, though, like they're just waiting for it. Just waiting for a bad storm to hit so they can have a chance to murder everything. It must be nice to be able to throw caution to the wind like that. I suppose the best Soldiers follow the same ideals."

At the very least, it was charming.

"Maybe it's like a privilege thing. You know, evergreens live practically forever. Other trees can't afford that, so they have bigger roots. Evergreens probably don't know adversity." He chuckled. "Kind of like the upper-class who live in Lumiose, right? I swear, those hoity-toity types think they can do whatever they want without consequence. They wouldn't last a day in the resistance..."

My attention began to wane. Our current circumstance was a great one in terms of distraction, but I still couldn't push the apprehensive feeling out of my gut. I had a million questions to ask Aimé, but I didn't feel comfortable asking any of them – not that he would talk about them anyway.

I looked at the ground, hands stuffed in my pockets. It was nice having company, but ever since the night I became a fugitive, I just wanted to be alone. I had this feeling that I couldn't put words to, like a dark cloud loomed over me and my entire world. It was upsetting, conflicting. I was ashamed of it and myself.

I don't know how I ever faked the confidence long enough to still be alive, but in that moment I just felt...wrong.

I let out a deep sigh before almost walking into Aimé. He grabbed my arm.

"Do you need to rest?" he asked. I shook my head. He had a concerned frown plastered on his childlike face.

His expression softened a little, but I could still see the traces of doubt underneath the lines of his face. "We're almost to the Connecting Cave. We should be in Cyllage City within the day."

"How are you going to get me in?" I asked.

Ever since the oligarchy took over, cities were required to upkeep checkpoints as a way to regulate the flow of people in and out each day. With smaller towns, like Camphrier, it wasn't much of an issue. We didn't get a lot of traffic, so the stasis officers were pretty lax. On the downside, with smaller towns it's a lot easier to keep an eye out for anything out of place. With my face apparently plastered all over the region, I would definitely stick out.

He turned his back to me and continued walking. "I have connections."

* * *

A soft cloud of dust fell on top of my head as we entered the cave. It was dark, but with the daylight filtering in through the entrance, I saw Aimé grab inside his bag for something. He pulled out what looked like a high-tech walkie talkie. He messed with some of the buttons before holding it up to his mouth.

"We're close," he said simply.

"I'm on in ten. I'll see you soon," a deep voice replied. The connection ended with a buzz.

"Who was that?" I muttered.

Aimé turned to me, his bright demeanor illuminated by the intrusive sunlight. "It's a goal of the resistance to always have at least two Workers employed to each city's border patrol. It makes it easier for us to keep under the radar."

I immediately thought of the stasis officers in Camphrier Town. I knew all of them personally, some from a very small age. This resistance could have been right under my nose for most of my life, and I had no clue. I realized this sentiment wasn't restricted to just stasis officers as well. Reflecting on my past, a good handful of people I knew were kind of ambiguous in their devotion to the state.

Connecting Cave was not daunting. It took us at most two hours to cross. The hard part, however, was the hordes of zubat that all took flight at once with any startling noise. This was not altogether a negative, however. In the darkness, it would have been easy to miss people passing by us, no matter how seldom it happened. The zubat became an effective warning mechanic. If we heard the frantic flapping of wings and piercing shrieks, we knew someone nearby had startled them, and we'd shut up until the we could make out the person passing by us.

A larger problem was trying to keep my voice down. Aimé had clearly been in enough caves to realize that noise reverberates off the cave walls. Being new to this, I didn't realize that this was the case. I learned quickly that the volume of my voice could make or break the flight of zubat from a significant distance.

But maybe the biggest issue was the floor covered in zubat excrement. I was still in the same wardrobe I had when I first met Ampharos, including the shoes, which weren't made for adventuring and had become very worn over the past few days.

I can only describe the feeling of it soaking into my socks as...unsettling.

A single man stood at the end of the cave, hands in his pockets. In the sunlight I could only make out his silhouette. He was very much the stereotypical stasis officer: tall, broad, and daunting. I stayed close behind Aimé as we inched toward the sunlight.

"It's us," Aimé said quietly. The officer didn't move. Aimé led me up closer, and I got a better look at his face. He was very handsome, with short dark hair and a thick neck.

"Good to see you again Aimé," he responded. "And this must be the infamous Moira." His eyes lingered on mine. "You should have mentioned she was a fox. I'd have offered to put her up for a few days. We'd have fun together."

I blushed uncomfortably in response and averted my eyes. He smirked and looked me up and down. Aimé looked back and forth at us expectantly.

In a government founded around science, all kinds of sexual treatment was often tolerated. This may not sound like such a bad thing, and ideally it wouldn't be, but there were not many laws in place protecting against sexual predation. Cat-calling is not such a big deal, until it turns into molestation, harassment, or rape, all of which receive little to no punishment.

After all, other living things don't necessarily consent either. However, needless to say, behaviors allowed to be perpetuated have taken their toll on sexual practices, especially when it comes to females. Under this regime, we as women are conditioned from a young age to believe that the way boys treat us sexually is just natural, which I've been told is actually not so different from beliefs of the old world.

I saw this man's muscles flex briefly under his uniform.

"Can we get by?" Aimé said finally.

The man diverted his attention from me to Aimé. "I gotta make it look good," he said condescendingly. "We're being watched after all. Wouldn't want to tip anyone off." He offered a slight smirk before stepping aside.

Aimé turned to look at me. "Put your hood up," he said quietly, "and keep your head low." He hooked my arm around his and led me out. "Lean on me," he muttered, eyes forward. "Pretend you're sick. We've got a long walk ahead of us."

As I lifted my hood, it seemed as if I became rooted even further into perpetual discretion. I wondered in that moment if I'd ever be able to confidently walk down the street, not without fear of being caught, but without care. I wondered if I would ever become an evergreen tree. I wondered if at the end of it all I'd be able to weed out what was destroying me, not the pigs who viewed me as a trophy or the officials who wanted me dead, but the cowardice inside me that prevented me from saying what I thought, the cowardice fostered by the oligarchy.

I had a story to tell, but I didn't know what to say.


End file.
